Zardari’s Foreign Trips

I have been trying to compile a list of all Zardari’s foreign trips for some time now as he has spent most of his time outside Pakistan, sharing drinks, than in Pakistan.

Following is a little break down of most of his trips since he assumed Presidency on September 9th 2008.

September 12 – 14	“Personal” visit to Dubai.
September 14 – 17	Three day visit to London to drop off his daughter, Bakhtawar, at Ediburgh University. He also manages to meet PM Gordon Brown.
September 21 - 30	Arrived in London on his to New York where he is scheduled to attend UN General Assembly session along with his entourage of 60 people. (wow!!)
----- Sept 25	Took time out from his busy schedule to hit on Republican nominee Sarah Palin. (Sorry..I had to add this to the list)
October 14 – 17	First “official” visit to China on the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao
November 4 – 5	Two day visit to Saudi Arabia with an entourage of 200 people. The aim was to seek an economic bailout to avoid an IMF loan. (yea Right!!). Prime Minister later defended Zardari’s 200 men joy ride by claiming that the trip was personally paid by Zardari and not the Government.
November 11 – 15	4 day trip to United States to participate in the high-level session of UN General Assembly on 'Culture of Peace’
November 16	Arrived in London for an 'over-night’ stay on his way home.
November 24 – 25	Two day trip to UAE to ask for more money.
December 4 – 8	Arrives in Turkey for attend the second trilateral summit. Came back to offer Eid Prayer at Aiwan-e-Sadr on the 9th.
December 19	One day visit to neighboring Afghanistan.
Year 2009
January 6	Another visit to Afghanistan to discuss regional peace. He was received at the Kabul Airport by First Vice President Ahamad Zia Massoud (Why didn’t President Hamid Karzai received him?)
February 20 – 24	Arrived in China on a four day visit to sign bilateral pacts and memorandum of understanding. The News reports that “[the] President Zardari has no meeting scheduled with his Chinese counterpart or the prime minister.”(more..)
March 10 – 12	Two day visit to Iran to hold talks with the Iranian leadership and to attend the 10th ECO Summit.
March 23 – 25	Leaves for Dubai on a two day “private” visit to spend some time with his family.
March 31 – April 3	Another visit to Turkey for a trilateral summit between Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
April 15 – 17	Three day visit to Japan to attend Friends of Democratic Pakistan and donor’s conference. (WTH?? more money..!?)
April 17 - 19	Arrived in China directly from Japan (did not get a chance to even stop home to change clothes..)
April 30 – May 3	Three day official state visit to Libya (Libya! seriously?.. to discuss what?.. how to sell nuclear assets to US..?)
May 4	Arrive in Great Britain on a private visit
May 5 - (whenever)	“First official visit to US” (so the last one was paid for by Zardari???). He arrived in New York today (May 10th) and I am not sure when will he be leaving.

Zardari took office on September 9th 2008 and in less than 8 months, he made over 20 foreign country tours. Why is he always running away from his beloved country?

May be he loves Pakistan so much that he wanted to experience his love away from it. Or may be he is bothered by constant load-shedding or the rising inflation. May be he got his cell-phone snatched while talking to Sarah Palin…and now he is afraid to stay in Pakistan… there can be many different possibilities.

Sources

I would like to thank my fellow blogger who started this list initially at http://fiverupees.blogspot.com/2008/12/asif-zardaris-many-foreign-trips.html

I have consulted many different sources to compile the list above, more sources that can be listed here. If anyone needs any information or source of the information listed above, please leave a comment and I’ll direct you to the appropriate source document.

Judges restored! Now what!?

First of all, congratulations to all Pakistanis for standing up to injustice and making this happen. You all have proved that we, as a nation, can still be united and can do miracles, if need be.

So, the Government has finally gave in and promised to restore the sacked judiciary. Pakistanis through out are celebrating for this great victory. But I see it a bit differnetly.
What people do not realize is that Mr. Zardari has played his cards very well. Although, he initially miscalculated the intensity of protests and reaction of people, but he did play it very smooth. It seems like he lost, but I strongly believe he only made a fool out of us all.

The government only restored the judges and that is it. Neither the President nor the Prime Minister laid out any plan about the current judges who took oath under PCO. If all of our leaders agreed to this restoration plan, that means they are accepting and validating the current Judiciary as "Legal". If they are allowing Mr. Dogar to complete his "legal" term limit and retire, they have already accepted the current Judiciary as legal. So the Long March and all the protest has been thrown out the window...Think about it!!

And, what about the change of Governor in Punjab? What about abolishing 58-2b? What about transferring some powers back to the Prim Minister? What about the deteriorating economy, growing unemployment, poverty, crimes increasing budget deficit etc. The list goes on and on.

This is not a victory to celebrate yet, it is not the end, it is only a start... start of a long journey to make Pakistan a civilized Islamic Nation.. we have a long long long way to go and we need sincere leadership not criminals to lead Pakistan into the next century (yes we still are living in 1990s).

Attack on Cricket

After a long absence from the Blogging world, today I was forced to return due to some recent development in Pakistan.
Since the election of Mr. Zardari as the President of Pakistan, I was so disgusted with Pakistan and its people; I just simply could not figure out why am I so worried about my home country when the people living there do not even care about!? Anyhow this may be a topic for other post.

The current problem we have on our hands is to find the culprits responsible for the attack on Sri Lankan team in Lahore. This is not an attack on our sovereignty but also on our dignity. As a Pakistani I feel so ashamed of myself for letting this happen that I cannot even walk with my head up now.

We are a very hospitable nation and our culture as well as religion teaches us to respect and protect our guests. Our hospitality used to be such that even our enemies felt protected if they came over as guests.
So What changed!! How can we let this happen?

In my opinion whoever attacked Sri-Lankan team were neither Pakistani or Muslims. We know better how to treat our guests. I have a strong feeling that Indian agency RAW is involved here to further destabilize Pakistan. This way they can call on the international community to take control of Pakistan's Nuclear Assets.

It is high time for our government to wake up and at least take five minutes from their daily "Loot Fest" and think about Pakistan. Otherwise, I strongly urge the Military to please save us once more....

Where have I been??

I came back to my blogging spirit after quite some time and I apologize for this. A lot of things happened since the last time I posted anything here: new government and parliament took control of Pakistan, Militants activity increased, President Musharraf resigned and Pakistan went into deeper troubles than before. Above all my sister got married and that was basically what kept me from coming back to this blog.

Although I had so much to write and comment on, with respect to what is going in Pakistan, but I just couldn't decide where to start from. I was so overwhelmed with all that happened in the past that it was almost impossible to sit down and write on any one topic.

I will try to do my best to update my blog. I know I do not have much of an audience or readers but I think my 2 cents will be worth someday or for someone.

Our new Crime Minister??

Oh did I say "Crime Minister"...?.. I was trying to say Crime Mini..... I meant Prime Minister!...

Exactly a month after the General Elections, our political situation is still where it was before, if not deteriorated further. So far there is no candidate that have the right credentials for becoming Pakistan's next Prime Minister.

Makhdoom Amine Fahim was the only candidate that could have been a tad better than others. But after the outright rejection of his nomination by Asif Zardari (or should I say Asif Bhutto), we are back to square one. He is not only trying to downplay the role of Amine Fahim but also keeping him away from important party decisions. It appears that Asif Zardari will try to nominate himself for the Prime Minster post as he is taking his sweet time in deciding on one. 

 

Just think, who would have imagined that after spending seven (7) years in jail, he will become the chairman of Pakistan biggest political party, PPP. The scenario of him becoming our next PM is not very far from reality. These are power hungry people who can and will play every dirty trick to hang on to it.

 

The point I was trying to make here is, if (God forbid) Zardari becomes our next Prime Minister, it would be the darkest and the most unfortunate era in the history of Pakistan. A person known to the world as "Mr. 10 percent" and whose corrupt activities are out in the open, will  represent us in the Global Arena as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Not only that, he would then have a free hand to once again to spread corruption and rob the wealth of Pakistan... just imagine!!!

Elections 2008

Pakistan is having the most important Elections in recent history. The Polls are closed and the results have now started pouring in.
Following table shows how major political parties stack up in realtime in National Assebmly (NA) as well as all the provincial assemblies.

Poll Results: Courtesy of GEO (Pakistan)

Pakistan Not #1

Forbes.com has compiled a list of the most dangerous destinations in the world. Unfortunately but as expected, Pakistan is among the countries that made it to the list.

As we have not achieved any number one spot since 1992, when we won four world cups in different sports and ofcourse number one in corruption (thanks to Mr. 10%), sadly this time we still failed to top the list.
(Dammit!! we tried so hard...)

Joke aside, according to the list, Pakistan is number 5th most dangerous country, following Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.

The country, which borders Afghanistan, suffers from ongoing geopolitical turmoil. Bomb attacks and rioting between Shia and Sunni Muslim communities are a threat

(Source: AP)

To read more and to see the entire list: Associated Press Website